The Playstation Portable or PSP is a handheld gaming device developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on Dec 11 2004, and as a seventh generation console the PSP competed with the Nintendo DS, being the first gen console of its own.
Development of the PSP was announced during E3 2003, and the console was unveiled at a Sony press conference on May 11, 2004. The PSP was received positively by critics, and sold over 80 million units during its ten-year lifetime. Several models of the console were released, before the PSP line was succeeded by the PlayStation Vita, released in Japan first in 2011 and worldwide a year later.
Hardware and software inside the PSP
The PSP uses two 333 MHz MIPS32 R4000 R4k-based CPUs, as a main CPU and Media Engine, a GPU running at 166 MHz, and includes 32 MB main RAM (64 MB on PSP-2000 and later models), and 4 MB embedded DRAM split between the aforementioned GPU and Media Engine. The hardware was originally forced to run more slowly than it was capable of; most games ran at 222 MHz. With firmware update 3.50 on May 31, 2007, however, Sony removed this limit and allowed new games to run at 333 MHz. The PSP is powered by an 1800 mAh battery (1200 mAh on the 2000 and 3000 models) that provides between about three and six hours of gameplay, between four and five hours of video playback, or between eight and eleven hours of audio playback.
The PSP runs a custom operating system referred to as the System Software, which can be updated over the Internet, or by loading an update from a Memory Stick or UMD. Sony offered no method for downgrading such software.
There were several revisions of the PSP with some weird ones such as sliding screens but each one packed its own style and were very cool at that time.There is a very big list of games to play if you are thinking of getting your hands on a PSP in today’s time but keep in mind there aren’t any new PSPs out there. The manufacturing of PSP was stopped almost a decade ago and you can only get it in the used market. You have a very big library of games to choose from the library is big that even if you are very picky you will definitely find some games that suits your taste.
Gameplay and users emotion towards PSP
Although the graphics of the console is way outdated the feeling of playing on a PSP can never be replaced. Threre are emulators available in the market which can also run PSP games but true PSP fanboys can’t and won’t go for that because they want that nostalgic feeling when times were good and they had a playstation portable in their backpack.
Playstation Portable has made a special space in the hearts of its users who used this console in the early 2000s and many still use theirs till date. The sentimental value of this console still holds its value in todays used market. It still goes for around 1k to 3k INR dpending on the condition and people buy them. Currently you wont find UMDs which were the only way to play games on PSP coz sony shutted the PSN store down a long time ago for PSP but nowadays you don’t get to see UMDs as well. You have jailbreak your device in order to enjoy games. It is a very old console and there are stable jailbreaks available for the PSP. Custom firmware or jailbreak is not what you should be doing but there is no other option to enjoy the retro PSP classics anymore.
